Certified Legal Nurse Consultants get paid big bucks. To get paid those big bucks, we have to get off the fence and take a stand, even if that means not always being right. Every successful CLNC® consultant has had that cliff-hanging moment of doubt. Here’s what one Certified Legal Nurse Consultant, Dale Barnes, learned from one of those experiences.
Purchasing any service or product is an emotional event. A customer buys not primarily to own the item or have the service, but to meet emotional needs: to seek comfort, reduce stress, fulfill social needs, achieve something significant, change status or lifestyle or even invest in the future.
Certified Legal Nurse Consultants have long known that the pharmaceutical and medical device industries have a vested interest in not only making sure that their products get wide distribution on the market, but also that they gain favorable press coverage in the healthcare and mainstream media. The extent of the “full court press” they make to gain such coverage takes on different extremes. Everything from parties, trips, gifts and research sponsorships are used to help influence writers. Another popular but hidden measure is the use of ghostwriters. They are often hired by the pharmaceutical or device industries themselves to write the articles, which are then submitted under the signature of an “impartial” doctor. Sometimes the so-called “ghost” may simply have ties, such as a sponsorship from the related industry or manufacturer, but other times the ghost may actually be part of the industry being written about. Just to name a few, many of you will remember the controversy surrounding disclosures of this practice related to Fen-Phen, Vioxx and Premarin.
Sometimes we get so caught up in marketing to prospective clients that we forget one of the most lucrative marketing sources – our existing clients. Focusing your marketing efforts on your existing and prior clients will often yield a much higher return on your efforts than prospecting for new clients.
I’m not a pack-rat, but I’ll admit a couple of bookshelves in the business section of my “library” are a bit over-run by books I’ve read, plan to read and some books I will probably never read. The other day Tom was doing some unsolicited (and unwanted) Spring cleaning and ran across a book given to me by the marketing guru Seth Godin. Tom looked at the cover and asked me “Vickie, what the #&%* is a meatball sundae?” He held the book up and I laughed because it does indeed have a photograph of a pretty unappealing meatball sundae (as well as a funny shot of Seth in a chef’s cap).
Making a list,
Checking it twice,
Don’t want to kill a patient,
That wouldn’t be nice…
I’m in New York City for Easter and just got back from strolling down Fifth Avenue (Tom held my credit card) in one of the most fashionable cities in the world.
A lot is being said now about the newest form of laptops – the netbook. Laptops were originally designed to be semi-lightweight, portable computers that a legal nurse consultant could easily carry from home to the medical library, to work, to wherever. Soon form was forgotten and notebooks became larger, more powerful and screens became wider. Before long, laptops were “desktop” replacements and almost as heavy to carry.
What an incredible marketing opportunity to present your CLNC services to a group of attorneys. I love it when the room is full of them. Do not charge for this presentation – look at it as an opportunity to market your CLNC services quickly and simultaneously to 20 attorneys face-to-face. Presentations like this give you instant credibility and are a powerful way to gain attorneys’ trust.
*The opinions and statements made by Vickie Milazzo, the founder of Medical-Legal Consulting Institute, Inc. are based on her experiences and expertise, should not be applied beyond the specific context provided, and do not guaranty or project actual results. Vickie Milazzo is no longer involved in the operations or management of the business, but is involved as an independent education consultant.
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